


Like Family

by raving_liberal



Series: Pinn Week Snippets [2]
Category: Glee
Genre: Family, M/M, Pinn Week, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-16
Updated: 2013-05-16
Packaged: 2017-12-12 01:29:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/805560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raving_liberal/pseuds/raving_liberal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Puck's father is back in town, and Puck learns that 'family' comes in many guises.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Family

Puck hasn't even been back from California for three months before his old man starts showing up everywhere. He doesn't talk to Puck, doesn't even act like he notices or recognizes Puck, but he’s there, following Puck around like a piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of a shoe and trailing along behind like an embarrassing white flag. Puck sees him across the diner at lunch, spies him a few rows away in the Walmart, spots him loitering in the parking lot of of his and Finn’s dorm. 

Puck doesn't go straight up to the dorm room. His name's not exactly listed on any of the housing forms or anything, and the odds of his dad remembering Puck had a friend named Finn Hudson isn't too high, considering how much the old man used to drink and how little of a shit he ever really gave about Puck. If Puck can just weave through campus on foot for a little while, he can spiral back to the dorm without letting on what building he lives in. 

Puck meanders towards the science building, then cuts across through humanities, zigzags in and out of the houses on sorority row, and finally doubles back. His dad is nowhere in sight when Puck ducks into his own building.

"Hey," Finn says when Puck finally walks into the room. "Where've you been? I thought you were having lunch with Jake?"

"Yeah, I did. One Puckerman too many," Puck explains.

"Your mom and sister crash or something?" Finn goes to the mini-fridge and pulls out two cans of pop, tossing one over to Puck.

"Wrong Puckerman. Apparently my old man must've run out of cash again," Puck says. "He's been following me all around town today, trying to act like he's not following me. Jackass is even more obvious than me, though."

"Oh, shit, Puck!" Finn's mouth drops open into that dopey worried look he gets, his forehead wrinkled. "Did you talk to him?"

"Hell no! I high-tailed it out of there and then lead him on a snipe hunt all over campus." Puck flops down onto his bed. The pop foams up and overflows the top of the can, running all over Puck's hand. He licks it off. When he's done, he looks up at Finn, who's staring at him with an expression stuck somewhere between fascination and horror. "What?"

"Nothing!" Finn says quickly. "Are you planning to talk to him?"

"Guess I have to at some point. Don't know how else to make him leave me alone," Puck says. "I know he's gonna ask me for money again."

"Don't give him anyway," Finn says.

"Don't plan to," Puck says, shrugging. He suddenly feels tired, drained almost. "He's just got this way of backing me into it, so I don't even realize what I'm doing until I'm already done."

"Puck..."

"I know!" Puck snaps, then softens his tone. "I know, alright? I just... He's my family."

"Family doesn't steal from you," Finn says. 

"Well, easy for you to say. You've got Carole and Burt and even Kurt. What've I got? Deadbeat dad, mom who didn't remember I was still in school until she decided to show up for graduation, bratty kid sister, half-brother I hardly know." Puck shrugs again. There's not much else to say. "Don't even get to see my kid hardly. That's all I've got, man."

"You've got me," Finn says.

"Yeah, well," Puck sighs. "I mean, I've got you now, but you won't be in college forever, you and Rachel'll probably end up getting back together and popping out a few kids at some point, and then where will I be?"

“You’ll always have me,” Finn says. “I’m not going anywhere, dude.”

“You say that now, but we’ll just see,” Puck say. He waves his hand at Finn dismissively. “I know how these things work. I know you. I know how you get when you’re with someone. I might as well not even exist.”

“Come on, Puck, that’s not fair.”

“Yeah, lots of stuff ain’t fair, Hudson. Deal with it.” Puck rolls over on his bed. “I’ll deal with him later and just hope he doesn’t want too much this time.”

Even though it’s barely seven p.m., Puck doesn’t have the energy to get up and do anything else, so he keeps lying on the bed, staring at the wall. After a while, he hears Finn get up and pace around the room for a while. Puck closes his eyes and keeps them squeezed tightly shut, even when he can feel Finn’s giant self hovering over his bed looking at him. Eventually, Finn leaves the dorm room. Puck gets up and flips off the lights and lies back down on the bed, closing his eyes again.

Finn doesn’t get back to the room until late that night, late enough that Puck had fallen asleep and drifted for a while. Once again, Finn stands by Puck’s bed, looming there silently. Puck considers continuing to ignore Finn, going back to sleep and sleeping through the next day, even, to avoid getting fleeced by his old man. 

Instead, Puck finds himself saying, “You gonna lie down or what?”

Because Puck isn’t looking at Finn, he doesn’t see how Finn reacts. He can hear Finn’s breathing, heavy like he’s been running or working out, but he can’t see Finn’s face, and Finn doesn’t move or say anything for a long time. Just as Puck starts to wonder if maybe he broke Finn or something, the edge of the mattress dips, and Finn clambers onto the bed next to Puck. Finn leaves a space between his body and Puck’s, but even though they’re not touching, Puck can feel Finn’s body heat. Puck falls back to sleep like that, Finn curled up behind him but not quite touching.

Puck wakes up in the grey light of early morning with one of Finn’s arms wrapped around his chest, and one of Finn’s heavy legs thrown over Puck’s legs. Finn’s face is pressed against the side of Puck’s head—it feels like his nose is smooshed right into Puck’s scalp—and his snores are loud in Puck’s ear. Puck’s first instinct is to elbow Finn in the ribs and shove him off Puck, but there’s something comforting about Finn’s weight and the way he’s totally relaxed and unwound, so instead Puck stays as still as he can for another few hours, dozing on and off, until Finn starts to stir.

“Hey,” is the first thing Finn says, his mouth still right next to Puck’s ear, then, “Sorry. Didn’t mean to squish you.”

“You squish everything, dude,” Puck tells him.

“Yeah, but not on purpose.”

“I know,” Puck says. “It’s cool.”

Finn disentangles himself from Puck and sits up, rubbing his eyes. “Oh, shit! I’ve gotta get to class!”

Puck sits up, too, and watches Finn running frantically around the room, changing his shirt and throwing text books around. Finn throws one hand up into a wave as he bolts out the door, which swings closed behind him. Puck shakes his head and laughs quietly to himself. If he’s got to go deal with his dad today, at least he got to start the morning off decently, all things considered.

When Puck gets outside, his old man’s not lurking in the parking lot, though. He’s not at the Walmart, the diner, or anywhere else that Puck can find. He tries sticking his head in a couple of the local bars, but still nothing. Puck finally ends up at the Lima Bean with a notepad, jotting out ideas for his screenplay and sipping overpriced lattes. He gets a text from Finn some time after his second latte.

_Where are u?_

Puck shakes his head and tosses his cups into the trash, heading back over to campus. When he gets back up into the dorm, Finn’s in there, sitting on Puck’s bed looking worried. 

“Hey, I texted you,” Finn says.

“I know.” Puck holds up his phone, shaking his hand side to side. “I got it.”

“I didn’t know where you were.”

“Don’t usually keep tabs on me, do you?” Puck asks. “Anyway, I went out to look for my old man. Didn’t find him though.”

“Yeah, you’re not going to,” Finn says, a little too ominously.

“Dude,” Puck says. “Did you _do_ something?”

“Maybe.”

“Shit, did you kill him or something like that?” Puck asks, sitting down next to Finn. He’s not sure how he feels about the idea of Finn killing his dad, if he’s honest with himself. 

“What?” Now Finn just looks confused. “No, I didn’t kill him! Jeez, Puck.”

“Yeah, I guess there’s no way you could figure out how to hide the body,” Puck snorts.

“I could if I had to,” Finn insists. “But no, I just, you know. Found him in the student center. Sat down and talked to him.” He fidgets a little, twining his fingers together and tapping his thumbs against each other. 

“Oh yeah? What’d you talk about?”

“I told him to leave you alone,” Finn says. “I told him you weren’t giving him anymore money, and he’s better not try to ask you for some.”

“What’d he say to that?”

“Well, at first he tried to argue, but then I stood up,” Finn explains. “He stopped arguing with me then.” He shrugs. “I don’t think he’ll be asking you for money again.”

“You did that for me?” Puck asks. “Seriously?”

“Of course I did,” Finn says. 

“What for?” Puck asks.

“‘Cause like I told you, you’ve got _me_ ,” Finn says. “So maybe you don’t have a whole lot of family. You’ve got me. I’m kind of like family too, right?”

Puck bumps his shoulder against Finn’s, smiling to himself. “Yeah, you’re like family, too. A whole lot like family.”


End file.
